A new gold nanoparticle based rapid immunochromatographic assay for screening EBV-VCA specific IgA in nasopharyngeal carcinomas

Large screening programs of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are still challenging due to the scarcity of the resources in higher prevalence parts of the world. In the present study, the development of a new low cost immunochromatography (ICG) strip test for screening of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is reported. A conjugate of gold nanoparticle-anti viral capsid antigen (VCA) immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibody was used as the detection probe. The test is based on a non-competitive immunoassay for rapid and reliable detection the serum specific IgA of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) VCA. Patient serum samples were analyzed with the strip and compared with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and pathological evaluation. The obtained results from the ICG strips were well correlated with the two reference methods. An evaluation of stability, sensitivity and specificity suggested the strip suitable for NPC screening programs in high-risk peoples and also for the recurrence monitoring.